This pioneering, multidisciplinary volume explores a rich constellation of ideas about the natural environment in the Middle East and their philosophical, political, historical and gendered roots. It does this through close textual analyses of the Epic of Gilgamesh (Sharif Elmusa), Hayy Ibn Yaqzan and Robinson Crusoe (Robert Switzer), the Letter of the Animals (Elizabeth Sartain), and modern Egyptian fiction (Maysa Hayward). These are framed by an editor's introduction and an article by John McNeill, winner of the 2001 World History Association Book Award.